It’s been a long, wet winter but spring is well and truly here, and the RHS Gardens are looking glorious this season.
While you can’t visit our gardens in person, we can still all enjoy their colour and beauty from home – there are delicate bulbs to brighten your day, cheery daffodils to make you smile and blossom-filled trees to inspire.
Rest assured our gardening teams continue to look after our beautiful gardens and living collections of plants ready for your return – we look forward to welcoming you back.
RHS Garden Harlow Carr, North Yorkshire
Pockets of vibrant spring colour can be found all around the garden, when bulbs including daffodils, tulips, muscari, hyacinth and iris fill the borders and containers.
In April, Harlow Carr’s Streamside garden comes alive with the sunny yellow hue of marsh marigold and the unfurling of ferns, followed by dazzling early primulas.
Meanwhile the Woodland, which occupies half of Harlow Carr’s 58 acres, is flushed with trilliums, dog’s tooth violets and pulmonaria, as well as many varieties of magnolias and rhododendrons.
RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Essex
There is plenty to delight around the Hilltop Garden, including the delightful pink and white blossom of Malus ‘Butterball’, fragrant Viburnum x burkwoodii ‘Anne Russell’ and double-headed Narcissus ‘Thalia’. In late spring, look out for rich blue spires of camassia, with their striking star-shaped flowers on tall stems, and the bright purple pom-poms of alliums.
On Clover Hill, plants that have earned the RHS Award of Garden Merit offer plenty of seasonal inspiration for home gardeners. The burst of golden flowers on Forsythia x intermedia ‘Lynwood Variety’ AGM are a welcome sight in March and April, while the pink-flushed white blossom of Japanese quince ‘Moerloosei’ AGM will put on a show for several weeks. The earliest-flowering rose of spring can also be found here: the yellow blooms of Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’ AGM appear in May to herald the coming summer months.
And we mustn’t forget the Winter Garden, where planting creates interest throughout the year – not just in winter. The drooping sprays of bell-shaped yellow flowers on Stachyurus praecox ‘Rubriflorus’ in early spring offer a contrast to the fluffy white balls of blossom appearing on Prunus maackii ‘Amber Beauty’.
RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon
Enjoy bursts of vibrant colour from rhododendrons in the Woodland Garden and camellias in the Stone Garden. Glorious displays of camellias, rhododendrons and magnolias are joined by daffodils and hyacinths to celebrate the very best of the season.
Across the garden, more than 40,000 spring-flowering bulbs have been planted for an even more spectacular display this spring, including 10,000 Narcissus and Camassia through the Devon apple orchard. The apple orchards themselves put on a show as they burst into blossom, along with Japanese cherries planted throughout the garden.
In late spring, the wildflower meadows become a dazzling display of buttercups, and in the wildlife pond near the Learning Centre there are signs of new amphibian life – tadpoles and young frogs.
RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey
The Conifer Lawn shows some of the earliest signs of spring colour, with a carpet of white, lilac and purple crocus stretching as far as the Alpine Meadow. Among the many varieties of snowdrop to be found in the Rock Garden in early spring, look out for the dainty hues of Iris reticulata, which can also be found lighting up Seven Acres in drifts beneath some of the trees. Later in the season, the garden reveals swathes of cheery daffodils in many more shades than yellow, as myriad cultivars demonstrate the diversity of the springtime favourite.
In the Cottage Garden, the shell-pink blossom of Prunus pendula f. ascendens ‘Rosea’ forms an avenue along both sides of the garden, followed by the vibrant purples of Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’ AGM and Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’ AGM.
A beautiful new scheme on the Top Terrace shines in late spring – Wisteria Walk – a contemporary showcase of this popular spring-flowering climber, set to become an iconic photo stop as it matures.
